New fire.

Everyone in the area is being advised to prepare to evacuate.

If anyone here could be in this group, please pack up your car now (including all legal and financial papers, and at least one favorite toy for each child).

Where I am (western San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles), far too many people have not pre-packed, and were not ready to drive off when they were ordered to, and some people are finding themselves in some really bad big shit because of it.

Assume that you are never going to be able to return home, and pack accordingly.

[EDITED TO ADD: I forgot to say the obvious--get your pets ready to go, with carriers, pet food, water bowls, and cat litter (or bird seed, etc.).

Please DO NOT leave your pets behind!!!!!]

I don't know this new-to-me area, but from what is going on around here, this has the potential to become REALLY serious.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2018 12:13AM by Tevai.

Thanks for the post Tevai

Keep us posted

M@t

SIL manages large facility that's taking in evacuees. He said they "look shellshocked."

Don't wait to be ordered to go. If you wait, you are likely to end up in stopped traffic.

Have they given a name to it or can you help me find it on a map? I have family there. PLEASE KEEP US UPDATED!

And yes, please everyone keep in mind having to transport your pets. I have one small crate I could cram my two girls into and go. You have to think about their food, meds too just like with your family with two feet. Also, a dear friend of mine is very very very smart and has been sure to have multiple copies of important pics/papers in multiple places. Something I am working on. None of us ever know what is around the corner.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2018 07:19AM by Susan I/S.

Susan I/S Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Have they given a name to it or can you help me
> find it on a map? I have family there. PLEASE
> KEEP US UPDATED!

Evidently, it is now being called the San Bernardino North Park fire.

Google: new fire near CSU San Bernardino

[CSU=California State University]

San Bernardino is far enough away to be just outside of what Angelenos generally consider "us," so KTLA-TV might not have as many active news resources going as is the case with Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. (LA and Ventura counties share considerable, interactively important in many different ways, boundary lines in common.)

I think, for San Bernardino, Google is probably the best news primary information resource, unless someone here knows of a better one.

Please, everyone: If you know where people in San Bernardino/Riverside "go to" for the most important, breaking, information and official warnings in these kinds of natural disaster situations, please tell us! Thank you!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2018 09:44AM by Tevai.

Susan I/S Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have family there.

I am sorry, Susan. I hope they are safe, and if they have to evacuate, I hope that they, and those things and living beings they hold dear, make it through safely.

:(

It's all over the state. Where is safe exactly? Hope this one they get a handle on before it does serious damage. Some of the blazes take on a life of their own.

The 2003 Cedar Fire was described that way, like a breathing, living monster by those in its path who survived to tell about it.

Being prepared to evacuate quickly has to save lives. People tend to believe the bad things happen elsewhere. Not in these out of control fires they're not.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2018 07:33AM by Amyjo.

Amyjo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's all over the state. Where is safe exactly?

These fires are being fed by dry chaparral (dry brush: tangled, overgrown, semi-desert native, shrubs and bushes), or too-dry trees/tree leaves/pine needles (etc.) (fir trees, eucalyptus trees, etc.).

Rolling hills, low-accessibility mountains (the California, often gorgeously scenic, kind of mountains), and flatlands which are high in these kinds of too-dry vegetation are NOT safe in high fire danger situations--but if you are living in the middle of a densely-populated area (such as on a valley floor), which does NOT have too much, too dry, vegetation around, then you are (at minimum) "safer," because there is little which exists in that area to feed the wildfire, so firefighters can control any fires, which do break out, fairly "easily."


> Being prepared to evacuate quickly has to save
> lives. People tend to believe the bad things
> happen elsewhere. Not in these out of control
> fires they're not.

Absolutely true, Amyjo. I know for a fact that many families who were ordered to evacuate were not prepared for those orders (some of them came over loudspeakers, at 3:00 AM, from police patrol cars), and are filling the shopping malls (such as Topanga Plaza), plus other stores, to buy necessities for the different family members because those things were left behind when the police came through and ordered everyone out: Right now!!!! Immediately!!!! Get Out!!!!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2018 04:31PM by Tevai.

Yipes! How scary. And those are the ones who answered the call to evacuate. I can't help but think of those who stay behind believing it isn't going to reach them (like during hurricane warnings to evacuate.)

When in Idaho for brother's funeral in September I was struck by how dry the brush was there. It is like tinder the same as in California. Even the lawns of people and a place of worship I visited were so dry that they'd go up in a flash if someone so much as dropped a cigarette or match on the ground.

That drought is wide flung, that leads to the dry conditions that make it more ripe for these wildfires to take hold.

Prayers for the safety and well being of all those affected by this, and that they heed the calls to evacuate. It's no time to be taking gambles with safety.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2018 02:10PM by Amyjo.

I have two family members who live in Malibu. They evacuated and then went back as first responders. One found his whole neighborhood safe along with his condo. The other's house was spared but all the surrounding neighbors lost their homes. He is amazed to still have his house. Only problem is they may have to evacuate a second time. We will see how it goes....

Stay safe you all!!

I hate the utter helplessness of watching this. I've been through several major floods that took out thousands of homes, but never a fire. Both are overpowering at their height. You simply struggle to get out of the way, and hope the fighters can save something.

And in both cases, when escape often means what you can throw in the car on short or no notice, a year's supply of anything is not worth diddly-squat. A backpack, pre-loaded with important papers, medications, survival items, that can be grabbed in seconds, is far more useful.

Hoping y'all escape The Monsters.

Damn. Stay safe, folks.

It seems there's yet another "new" fire starting near San Bernardino today. This one is near Fontana.

A fireman on the news said if even a cinder blows from the fire, it starts another new fire. That's how hot and dry conditions are.

Stay safe out there!

If that's possible. If not, evacuate!

Thanks, Amyjo. I didn't know about this one.

The Santa Anas are down in one way (they're kind of "coming" and "going," back-and-forth), but when they are active, they are still causing problems (including, on a personal basis, whatever-it-is in the air that is causing a bunch of weird physical nuisances).

Mostly, things appear to be simmering down.

Except, maybe, out near San Bernardino.

The wind can be very bad out there. Not much to slow it down. I sure don't miss them. I used to keep a bottle of saline spray in my pocket and have constant sinus infections.

FYI for those being bothered by smoke, it does help if you spray your air filters with Endust.